Monday, August 6, 2012

Sign of the times - contempt for rule of law

It is an open
secret in this country that food articles are adulterated, contaminated and
frequently treated with toxic chemicals. This is done to sweeten fruits,
quickly ripen and enlarge sizes of fruits and vegetables and to lend to them a
farm-fresh sheen. This has been going on for quite some time and the press and
some TV news channels have been pretty vocal about it. But the authorities
concerned of the food and drug administrations of various states have seldom
taken action. The result has been that this has been going on merrily and those
indulging in the practise never bother about either the law or the consequences
of their deceit on the consumers. We have reached a stage today that virtually
every item of food, be it vegetarian or non-vegetarian, milk or edible oils, is
consumed with trepidation. A reputed physician in the local cancer hospital,
when asked about enormously large waiting crowds of patients, told me it is all
a result of pollutants in the atmosphere and contaminants in what people ingest.

Over the years
governance has been so lax that adulterating or contaminating food articles
seems to have become par for the course for those who trade in them. That is
why when the local district and food safety officials got active late last
month after a lapse of a couple of years there was resentment and those who
took samples of some food articles from a well-known restaurant in the business
district of Maharana Pratap Nagar, Bhopal, came in for some rough treatment.
Not only were they gheraoed (a kind
of wrongful and forcible restraint), preventing
them from leaving the premises and they were subjected to some hooting and
slogan shouting. Unused as theyare
to being checked in their wrong-doing, the offenders promptly collected a crowd
of sympathisers from nearby eateries.

The bone of
contention was “mawa”, Indian name
for thickened milk, which is an essential ingredient of most of the Indian
sweets that are made by confectioners. Many tons of adulterated thickened milk
and other milk products were seized all over north India a couple of years ago
and our own state was not far behind. Despite intensive action the illegal
trade has continued and this year in Bhopal alone many quintals of adulterated mawa have been detected and seized
before and after the fracas at MP Nagar. The illegal business picks up during
the festivals occurring between August and October. No wonder, therefore the
local authorities thought of carrying out checks and came up against aggressive
offenders. The adulterants and contaminants are very harmful for health and
lacing the food stuff with them should be treated as a serious offence.

Breaking law, resistance
to law-enforcement – contempt for rule of law is what seems to be driving
people. Lax, in fact, absence of governance has made the offenders bold enough
to challenge the authority of the government. Those who unauthorisedly occupy
public lands go after the squads of government officials who have the mandate
to free them of encroachments. The auto-rickshaw drivers do not charge
commuters by their installed metres, do not wear uniforms and do not display
their names despite repeated orders of the district administrations. Basements
meant for parking of vehicles have been sold or let out for shops, leaving no
alternatives for the vehicle-owners but to park on the roads constricting the
road-space for smooth movement of traffic. These are only illustrative; the
malaise has gone viral affecting most of the socio-economic facet of current times.

Things have been
happening like this for years but the administration has never shown any spine.
Laws are weak and, on top of it, these are also sparingly enforced. And then,
there is inevitable interference from political bosses rendering the
bureaucracy helpless. A spunky sub-divisional magistrate had stood up to a
minister when he interfered in her operations to penalise an adulterator of
food stuff. She was promptly moved out and put in an inconsequential post in
the Academy of Administration. (Please see “A spunky bureaucrat and an intemperate
politician” http://bagchiblog.blogspot.com).
No wonder, an era of lawlessness has descended in the state. Regardless of the
claimed rise in the state’s GDP people are generally consuming what should be trashed
away as poison.

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About Me

There would seem to be no point in talking about the position I used to hold. What is more relevant today is that I am retired from the service of government of India where I worked for thirty four years in senior positions ending just below the top of my department. I retired more than twenty years ago. To be fruitfully engaged I took to blogging and writing articles, initially, on local issues but now for years I have been writing on topical and environmental matters. The writings in the local supplement of a national daily gave me some kind of a positive identity in the town which culminated in my being nominated to be a founder member of Bhopal Citizens' Forum, a powerful pressure group. I am , I think, fruitfully engaged and I have no complaints against life.